Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday harshly rebuked the United States’ withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or Iran nuclear deal, describing President Donald Trump’s pullout statement as “vulgar and commonplace.”

“The U.S. President lied at least ten times in his statement and threatened both the Iranian nation and the country’s political establishment,” Khamenei said in a statement posted to his official website, according to Radio Farda.

Khamenei’s official website translates his subsequent comment as “I answer him, as a representative of the Iranian population: ‘Donald Trump, you cannot lift one finger against us.’”

“Trump will whither away, perish, and his body will decompose: but, the Islamic Republic will still be thriving,” Khamenei added.

The supreme leader reportedly declared, “The U.S. wishes to tell the Islamic Republic what to do, but the Iranians are an independent nation and Americans cannot stand this.”

Khamenei went on to insult the other European members of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, and tell Trump to “go to hell with your failures” in Iraq and Syria.”

During his historic speech on Tuesday, Trump delivered a message “to the long-suffering people of Iran,” saying, “The people of America stand with you.” Trump continued:

It has now been almost 40 years since this dictatorship seized power and took a proud nation hostage. Most of Iran’s 80 million citizens have sadly never known an Iran that prospered in peace with its neighbors and commanded the admiration of the world. But the future of Iran belongs to its people. They are the rightful heirs to a rich culture and an ancient land, and they deserve a nation that does justice to their dreams, honor to their history and glory to God.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani was the first Iranian official to publicly react to America’s withdrawal from the JCPOA. He suggested the move was meaningless, saying, “From this moment on, the JCPOA (nuclear agreement) is between Iran and five countries. The plus one no longer exists and, under these circumstances, we have to wait and see how these six countries will react to this agreement.”

Radio Farda noted that Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament (or Majles) characterized Trump’s speech as “a political show” and said his words were “un-calculated and vulgar.”

The publication, as well as several others, reported that Larijani said Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization should be prepared to resume nuclear activity.

During Wednesday’s parliamentary session, several politicians set an American flag on fire and chanted “Death to America.” The lawmakers reportedly also torched a symbolic copy of the Iran deal before vowing to increase spending on the country’s ballistic missile program.

President Trump also stated on Tuesday that “America will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail. We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction. And we will not allow a regime that chants “Death to America” to gain access to the most deadly weapons on Earth.”

He added, “Today’s action sends a critical message. The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them.”

 

Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter for Breitbart News. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis on Wednesday expressed support for President Donald Trump’s decision to end America’s participation in the Iran nuclear deal, dismissing the pact as “inadequate.”

His comments came during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday focused on the Pentagon’s 2019 budget.

Mattis told lawmakers that President Trump did not make his decision in haste, suggesting that the administration is working on an alternative effort to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapon capabilities.

Secretary Mattis explained:

It wasn’t a hasty decision. The administration has been in place for over a year and for over a year we’ve attempted to work with allies to address the shortcomings on it. So, I think we now have the opportunity to move forward to address those shortcomings and make it more compelling. That effort is underway already.

The Pentagon chief assured the Senate panel that the Trump administration would continue working with U.S. allies to prevent Iran from obtaining an atomic bomb post-America’s withdrawal from the agreement.

Non-U.S. signatories to the agreement have suggested that they intend to remain committed to the deal even after Trump’s decision.

Referring to the president’s decision to pull out from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the pact’s official name, Mattis told Senators:

I believe what’s happened is the president could not affirm as required that this agreement was being lived up to and in the best interests in all aspects of what was supposed to be happening under the JCPOA…We have walked away from the JCPOA because we found it was inadequate for the long-term effort [against Iran]. This was something that was probably noted by the Senate several years ago when the Senate did not endorse it as a treaty. So we will work with our allies and try to bring Iran back into more responsible behavior.

President Trump long cautioned that absent a fix to the agreement’s flaws, his administration would not continue to implement it.

Mattis declared that Iran failed to reduce its “malicious activities” in and around the Middle East as a result of the agreement reached between Tehran and U.S.-backed world powers — the U.K., France, Germany, Russia, and China — in July 2015.

“We have not seen any drawdown or reduction in Iran’s malicious activities and malign activities across the region,” the Pentagon chief testified.

Mattis highlighted what he believes to be the top “five” threats that Iran poses to the United States and the international community: the nuclear issue; terrorism; ballistics missile efforts; ongoing cyber attacks; and threats to international commerce in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.

Mattis stressed that Tehran did not live up to its commitments under the deal, which was supposed restrict Iran’s nuclear operations in exchange for relieving the Islamic Republic of crippling economic sanctions, namely those the United States and the United Nations have imposed.

Israel asserts that U.S.-led world powers entered into the deal under a “false pretense.”

Citing “new and conclusive proof” of violations by Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Tehran of continuing to hide and enhance its nuclear weapons program after the agreement.

Iran insists that it is not seeking to build a nuclear weapon, repeatedly arguing that its atomic program is for peaceful civilian purposes.

On Tuesday, President Trump announced his administration would be reimposing sanctions lifted under the deal, a move that the White House described as “terminating the United States’ participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),” the pact’s official name.

During the hearing, Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, denounced President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the pact as “not only wrong but reckless.”

“By walking away from this agreement we are forsaking the opportunity to continue to monitor in detail the [nuclear] work done by Iran to make certain that they live up to its terms,” alleged Sen. Durbin, the Democratic whip.

He argued that Trump’s move will negatively impact America’s credibility and overall standing in the world.

In his written testimony, Mattis warned, “Iran continues to project malign influence and threaten freedom of navigation in the Middle East. They are also modernizing their space, cyber, missile, and conventional maritime capabilities, which pose a direct threat to our Allies and our interests in the region.”

Wednesday’s hearing was focused on the Pentagon’s $686 billion budget for 2019, which Durbin described as the “largest budget of any department ever in the history of the United States of America,” urging Mattis to be responsible with taxpayer funds.

Fifteen Republicans have quickly signed a “discharge petition” that would allow Democrats to push a no-strings amnesty for roughly 3 million ‘DACA’ illegals through the House this month.

The amnesty vote will be forced if the discharge petition is signed by 25 GOP legislators plus all Democratic legislators — and if the GOP legislators are not pressured to reverse their votes by the GOP’s business-first leadership, led by outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan.

The amnesty push is a political challenge for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the likely replacement for Ryan.

“The goal is to empower each member of the House, including the speaker, to advance the solution that each member believes is the best one for this challenge and to try to gain supporters for that solution,” said Florida Rep. Carolus Curbelo, who faces a tough election this November. “This institution should be driven by courage, not by cowardice,” Curbelo told CNN.

Curbelo launched the petition with Texas Rep. Will Hurd and California Rep. Jeff Denham.

They were quickly backed up by Reps. David Valadao, Mario Diaz-Balart, Mia Love, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Charles Dent, Fred Upton, David Reichert, Mike Coffman, Chris Collins, John Faso, Mark Amodei, and Elise Stefanik.

Other GOP legislators who may sign the petition include Washington’s Rep. Dan Newhouse, Idaho’s Mike Simpson, Illinois’ Rodney Davis and Adam Kinzinger, Indiana Rep. Susan Brooks, Maine Rep. Bruce Poliquin, New Jersey Reps. Frank LoBiondo, Leonard Lance, Tom MacArthur and John Katko, Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick, Pat Meehan, and Ryan Costello, plus Virginia’s Scott Taylor.

The House clerk posts the growing list of legislators who have signed the petition.

The discharge petition process is rarely used. It allows a majority of House members to force a floor vote despite opposition from the House leadership.

This pending petition would schedule a rare “Queen of the Hill” debate where House legislators could vote on four rival immigration and amnesty legislative packages.

But the Democrats will likely vote as a bloc for a no-strings amnesty bill. In turn, that amnesty bill likely would be pushed by business lobbyists who can deliver votes from a bloc of business-first GOP legislators, including several legislators who have already announced their retirement. That combination of Democrats and business-first GOPers would provide a House majority for the amnesty.

Business groups are pushing for a DACA amnesty to prevent wage increases in a tight labor market, and also to block the pro-American immigration reforms pushed by President Donald Trump. One of the business groups pushing the amnesty is FWD.us, which was formed by Mark Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley investors to limit salaries for U.S. college-graduates:

NEW – @FWD_us statement on the new discharge petition from @RepJeffDenham and others.

Here’s the deal: this is how to actually make votes on Dreamers happen. Members should sign. pic.twitter.com/gXalqiwgtg

— Todd Schulte (@TheToddSchulte) May 9, 2018

If the discharge petition ensures a House vote for an amnesty bill, the amnesty could still be blocked by the Senate or by Trump’s veto.

To prevent a veto, Democrats would likely offer Trump some combination of promised funds and token reforms.

Amnesty advocates are urging GOP legislators to help “Dreamer” illegals instead of GOP voters. A statement from advocacy group America’s Voice said:

If Republicans are serious about helping Dreamers, this is their chance to put some real political skin in the game and put Dreamers’ well-being ahead of loyalty to their party’s leadership. Until Republicans help deliver the 218 signatures needed to force House GOP leadership to allow a vote on legislation to protect young Americans, who will face deportation unless Congress passes a bill, this is nothing but another political trick.